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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of creative nonfiction short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

150+ Creative nonfiction Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. The creative nonfiction stories on this page deliver exactly what it says on the tin: true stories told in weird and wonderful ways.

Creative nonfiction Short Stories – Page 8 of 10

But what a kiss...

Submitted to Contest #330

I wasn’t supposed to be kissing him. See, there are kisses and there are KISSES. You can engage in an underlined one. Or one in italics. Bold or regular. There are kisses you forget almost immediately afterwards, and kisses that linger for forty years. So that when you think back, you bite your lip and look off into the distance, and you can still feel his hands in your hair and his body against yours, and most importantly his lips. Oh, his lips. I wasn’t supposed to be kissing him. Let’s get that straight right up front. I wasn’t supposed ...

21 likes 2 comments 2
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At The Dog Park

Submitted to Contest #330

“You guys are so cool and we really appreciate your friendship. I’m so glad we met you all.” Whenever I was with Margot I always referred to us in the plural form. We were a duo. We are a duo. I remember saying this to my new friends about a week or so after I moved here to downtown San Jose. I was walking my little French Bulldog, Margot, through the lush, green and beautiful campus of San Jose State University on that first night after I moved into my apartment on South 4th Street when I saw a bunch of dog owners gathered in a small field ...

15 likes 16 comments 16
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Second Chances

Submitted to Contest #330

“Is this why you’ve been missing class?”The young man stood in the doorway, head hung low, shoulders a little drooped. “Yes, ma’am,” he replied politely.“Well, come on in then and tell me what’s going on.”He shuffled the two steps to the chair and took a seat. Back then, I was only an adjunct at the local community college which paid well, but not quite well enough for me to raise three boys by myself on the one salary. I had two other jobs. One was a Sunday morning church organist gig, and this one was as mental health counselor in the ...

5 likes 4 comments 4
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The Horse Shit Fertilizer

Submitted to Contest #330

The man was pruning the yellow leaves from one of his apple trees when he called out to his girlfriend. As always, she finished what she was doing — washing lettuce — dried her hands and said, “Yeah, darling, I’m coming.”She walked over, unhurried, graceful in her own way. He nodded at the tree. “Looks better now, doesn’t it?” – “Oh, absolutely, love. Perfect.” – “Think we should add some fertilizer?” – “Yeah, those piles of horse manure you got — can’t get better than that for the trees.” – “Ha! You said it. Let’s put some music on too. You...

12 likes 3 comments 3
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A Winter's First Kiss

Submitted to Contest #330

A Winter’s First Kiss The air was cool and crisp—cold, but not as bracing as late February in West Virginia could be. Silver clouds stretched lazily across the sky, and light snow flurries drifted around us, settling softly on my hair and shoulders. Each flake felt like a whisper, delicate and fleeting, dissolving the moment I touched it. We walked slowly through the black iron gates of a small park. The smell of damp earth mingled with the faint pine scent lingering from the nearby forest. It wasn’t a typical park with bright playsets or t...

11 likes 6 comments 6
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Welcome to Love

Submitted to Contest #330

“So, it’s been a year now, how are you feeling?”“Angry.”“Really, why? I thought everything ended pretty amicably between you two?”“It did. I mean, we were never the type of people to scream and yell at each other. No matter how upset the other was.”“Then why are you angry?”“... because hindsight is a beautiful thing.”“It is.”“I have so much knowledge now of who I was in the relationship. How naive and blind I was to the hurt. To just the type of person he is. How manipulative he could be.”“And you didn’t know any of this when you two were to...

8 likes 2 comments 2
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It all started one summer day on the blacktop of an old school

Submitted to Contest #330

It all started one summer day on the blacktop of an old school. The neighborhood kids were short a player, and my older brother waved me in. I didn’t have cleats, just duct‑taped shoes. My glove was too small, my heart too big. The second batter cracked one deep. I chased it down, caught it off the bounce, and without thinking, I threw that white ball like it was born in my hand. It sailed over the backstop, into a yard across the street. The older kids froze. My brother didn’t speak. He never really did.That was the first time I real...

12 likes 8 comments 8
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Meet Me in Tampa

Submitted to Contest #330

"So, that's it, huh?" I'll pretend to be more upset when you reply. I'll be distraught. I can be torn up inside when you say “I'm so sorry. I never should have asked you to come.” I can play hurt. Our joint support system will be surprised that this holiday trip didn't end in the proposal I had warned them about. How laughable it is that you will be the only one in the world not to know about the opal engagement ring burning a hole in my pocket. It will be even more laughable when I tell them I’m not going anymore. How funny is it that I’ll ...

9 likes 1 comment 1
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The Boy Who Chose Me First

Submitted to Contest #330

Jared was my first boyfriend, though he didn’t arrive with butterflies, giggles, or secrets. He came quieter than that, like an undercurrent beneath the ribs, something steady humming beneath all the noise of being fourteen. He was the first boy who let me try on a version of myself I hadn’t lived in yet, someone normal, someone unbroken, someone not defined by disease. We used one another as shields, two kids pretending we knew how to be the people everyone else expected us to be. He needed the safety of saying he had a girlfriend; I nee...

13 likes 6 comments 6
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Picking Up the Pen

Submitted to Contest #330

I don’t know what to write. I’ll be honest, I haven’t put pen to paper like this in well… too long. I don’t even know why or when I stopped. I guess it happened slowly. Gradually. Not some dramatic “this is it, I’ll never write again,” just… life happening. AI showed up and actually forming my own thoughts started to feel like a waste of time. Why spend thirty minutes writing something when a computer can do it in thirty seconds? That’s more efficient, more productive… right? And as I’m writing this, I’m realizing how much I’ve been letting ...

10 likes 3 comments 3
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him

Submitted to Contest #330

I don’t know exactly when I started paying attention to him. It was progressive. I began noticing this tall man whose features struck me as very singular; He obviously wasn’t Hungarian. I became curious. I wanted to know where he came from. I knew he must be from one of the neighbouring countries, but I didn’t know which: Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic? I took note of the few pupils he could have a conversation with; that young one, whom at one point I thought might be his son, and the one whose particular eyebrows I really like. I someh...

5 likes 1 comment 1
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Only One Mother

Submitted to Contest #330

“Goodbye, love,” my mother’s farewell made me pause and turn back one last time to offer a final wave.Her smile was brave, but her eyes remained fixed on me, as if she knew it would be the last time she would watch me leave her. I had no choice—I had to go. The world was beginning to shrink around us as the Covid pandemic spread. Borders threatened to close; flights grew scarce, and uncertainty hung in the air like a thick fog. My partner, Lisa and I, were faced with an impossible choice: stay in the British Isles, risking indefinite separat...

30 likes 27 comments 27
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Hello, Little One

Submitted to Contest #330

Sensitive content: pregnancy / child loss. "Hello, Little One!" My husband is speaking to my belly. The positive pregnancy test is sitting just off to the side. I couldn't believe it! I told him straight away. We had been trying for a while but with no luck. I had almost given up after the last negative test. I had thought that when the time comes, I would announce it to my husband in some elaborate, clever way. But screw that! Screw waiting! Why wait to celebrate when we are now a family of 3?! Straight away he shared my excitement, and...

9 likes 1 comment 1
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He Called Me Sunshiine

Submitted to Contest #330

He Called Me Sunshine “Until tomorrow, Sunshine. Can’t wait to see you." He whispered before hanging up. We met online just a couple of weeks ago. It started with short messages on the Plenty of Fish dating site. We quickly switched to texting all throughout the day. Once we shifted to nightly calls, we couldn't stop talking. His voice was soft and genuine. We shared secrets, dreams, and everything in between. We laughed about our fears and joked about our mistakes. He seemed to fill a loneliness I wasn't even aware I had. We spoke with such...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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The story of working.

Submitted to Contest #330

The values of ethics are important and vast beyond different cultures and identities with people who walk and live in the year of 2025; with that, there can come great certainty that there will be movements that shift the world for better or for worse, when people can come together and agree on the value of a certain ethical issue or a certain situation that they need to handle.One example of an ethical issue when I was at work in 2020 during the time of COVID-19. I worked at a Barnes and Noble Café; they sell everything from Barnes and Nobl...

6 likes 2 comments 2
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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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